Doug Finke: Name an official who wants Burris to stay

Let’s open with a quiz. Name five prominent public officials who have urged U.S. Senator Roland Burris to stay in office.

Doug Finke

Let’s open with a quiz. Name five prominent public officials who have urged U.S. Senator Roland Burris to stay in office.

Yes, it’s a trick question because there aren’t five people, prominent or otherwise, who think it’s a good idea for Burris to stick around in a job where he’s lost all credibility. Alas, it looks like Burris is intent on being the federal version of Rod Blagojevich, the main difference being the Illinois Senate can’t impeach him and send him to the talk show circuit.

So if Burris insists on defying logic, commonsense and all other rational behavior and stubbornly staying in the Senate, would it be too much to ask that he hire a psychiatrist, psychologist or even a psychic so he can get through all of his repressed memories at once? Get them all out in the open and then move on, rather than have a new one pop up every week or so and stoke the controversy all over again?

“I talked to no one in the Blagojevich administration about the Senate seat until I got it. Well, I mean I talked to several people about the Senate seat, but there was no quid pro quo involved in me getting it. I didn’t promise to do anything for Blagojevich. Except, what I mean is I didn’t promise to do anything except raise some money. But that doesn’t count because I now remember I couldn’t convince anyone to donate money. That’s when I decided it would be wrong to raise money so I certainly didn’t do that, because it would be wrong. By the way, did I remember to mention that my son got a state job several months ago, before Blagojevich was impeached? No? Well, he did.”

Just do it once, Roland, and be done with it.

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Best line of the week was about Burris’ kid, Roland Burris II, getting that $75,000 state job which appears to have come along just at the right time, right after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a lien on II and a bank moved to foreclose on his property.

The job is now referred to as “kid pro quo.”

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As long as we’re on the Burris family tree, let’s complete it. We have the father, Roland senior, the son, Roland II, and the daughter, who is named Rolanda.

Do you see a pattern?

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Gov. Pat Quinn met privately with Senate Republicans last week to describe the crushing financial problems facing the state. He came out of that meeting saying what had been projected to be a $9 billion budget deficit was growing by the day and is now bigger than even that record-setting amount.

He then added that he was going to have good news for fans of Illinois parks. The next day, Quinn said he is reopening seven state parks closed by Blagojevich to save money. Keeping the parks open will cost the state a little over $1 million.

Admittedly, that’s nothing in the context of a $9 billion deficit. At the same time, if the state is going to solve its budget problems, it’s going to take a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts. Some of those cuts will have to involve programs that may not cost that much and may have some popular support, but also aren’t essential to the long-term operation of the state.

Here was a chance for Quinn to make that point leading up to his budget speech March 18. He didn’t. We’ll see if that changes later.

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Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, appears to be calling the bluff of senators in both parties on budget issues.

He formed a bipartisan committee to review all the options for dealing with the deficit, from tax hikes to budget cuts. In a January speech, Cullerton noted that most state money is spent on education and health care, areas most lawmakers won’t cut. As he then pointed out, if you don’t cut, the only option is to raise taxes.

Maybe Cullerton’s committee will come up with some truly new and innovative ideas to close the deficit. But if it does nothing more than silence the hypocrites who say you can spend money and not raise taxes, it will be a success.

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527 or doug.finke@sj-r.com.

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